CLASS NOTES
67
NMH
DONNA EATON-MAHONEY 97 Gifford St Falmouth MA 02540-3306 dmeato@aol.com DANA L GORDON 106 Westphal St W Hartford CT 06110-1183 mounthermon1967@comcast.net
Jack Osborne gave his retirement notice at
Brooklyn Bottling in the fall of ’12 but was “invited” back to do year-end inventory and asked to stay until they could find a new replacement (seems the first guy who replaced him couldn’t “cut the mustard”). The unanticipated workload not only prevented Jack from attending our 45th reunion, it has delayed his planned move to the HUD repo–1880s farmhouse he bought, seven miles from his 48-acre mountainside retreat in Phillips, Maine. The house is in relatively good shape, and Jack plans to sell his place on Long Island, N.Y., and move “Down East” and become the “next Stephen King” well before our 50th reunion, which he promises to attend. Even further along in the Stephen King department is Skip Walker, whose sixth novel, Crime of Privilege, was published by Random House under his given name, Walter. Skip spent a good part of the summer touring the country to promote the murder mystery that Barnes & Noble, Publishers Weekly, and the Independent Booksellers Organization all declared “must” reading for the summer of ’13. Continuing with a theme, Dana Gordon’s career as a voice-over professional has given him the opportunity to work on projects for a wide array of clients from ING Insurance to Daimler Trucks North America to Stephen King and collaborator John Mellencamp, for whom he voiced radio and TV commercials promoting the soundtrack DVD of their musical, Ghost Brothers of Darkland County. Gene Harmon is partially retired but still involved with a startup group working to provide solar-powered passenger rail services. He needs more than a train to get together with Irma-Riitta Simonsuuri Jarvinen in her native Finland to continue the romance they rekindled six years ago. Both plan to attend our 50th reunion in what will be the first visit to the school for each of them since ’67. Bill Johnson is actively involved with the Boy Scouts of America, including working on the medical staff for the National Jamboree at Summit Bechtel Reserve, their new high-adventure area for scouts in W.Va. Ross Mason figures he’ll put in a couple more years as chief engineer of WGHP TV in Greensboro, N.C., where he’s been for 33 years. He also plans to race his bicycle as the young guy in the 65- to 69-year-old age bracket once he hits 65. When she moved to rural Douglas County, Missouri, two years ago, Jean McBean Koenig thought her musical life was over, but it is richer than ever. She’s playing cello in a string trio and has performed in one chamber music concert. Best
of all, she’s become involved in the Ozark String Project, a program to bring affordable violin lessons to a very poor and culturally deprived area. Jean has been writing grants for instrument donations ($500 will buy a cello set-up) and making lesson plans for starting cello instruction. She and her husband continue to “rescue” their farm from neglect, adding cows and a substantial vegetable garden. Jean reconnected with Eliza Childs and Anne Barrus Zeller in the past year and hopes to make it to the 50th. Anne Johnson Wrider has been an Episcopal priest for almost 30 years. She’s rector of the Indian Hill Church, a dual-denomination church (Presbyterian/Episcopal) in Cincinnati. Her grown son lives in Mumbai, India, with his wife and designs video games for a living. Theater is Anne’s passion, something she hopes to do full time as soon as she can figure out a way to retire. While some classmates contemplate retirement, Aaron Newton seems to be headed in the opposite direction. He brought his set-building and behindthe-scenes technical expertise to the newly updated version of Carl Sagan’s PBS series “Cosmos.” When asked if he’d met series host Neil deGrasse Tyson, Aaron replied: “Dr. Tyson was as interested in our part of the series as we were in his. He was on location before the ‘spaceship’ was built, before the lights were hung, and before the green screens were placed. He had lunch with the crew and gave us a tour of the stars.” As she was about to leave home to settle a dispute between neighbors in a village outside Bath, Somerset, UK, where she’s lived for around 40 years, Ann Beardsley wrote to say she’s been mediating for about 25 years and combined that with a career in the arts: project management, community arts, and jewelry making. She’s still doing the jewelry making and had a small exhibition in Bath last summer, but other work is slow, and she’s in the mood to wind down and spend more time in the allotment and her garden. Annie has been married, separated, divorced, and is now single and living in a cottage on the edge of the city. Her son, Jack, is a producer and works mainly in London. She and Jack are planning a travel adventure to India for January. Kathy Cole Gibbons reports ’12 was a year of change for her family. Husband, Grant, became chairman of Colonial Insurance. Son Graham ’05 (26) is working at Burrows Lightbourn as a marketing assistant and account manager for Samuel Adams beer and has been drafted by the Bermuda Regiment, the island nation’s tiny “defense force.” Son Andrew (25) had worked for a year in private banking at Capital G before moving to South Korea, where he is a teacher. Kathy continues to edit a local cultural magazine as well as work with the Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art to produce catalogs and text for their exhibits. Her passion for tennis has not abated, although her aging joints are not quite as enthusiastic as they used to be. She also spends a fair amount of time in New York and remains active in Bermuda politics. Melinda Hatheway Kantor is still in the Montpelier, Vt., area but has moved to a new home. She’s still into traditional music (flute, fiddle, and
piano for figuring out tunes) and loves gardening, reading, and hiking as well as fishing, canoeing, and snorkeling at the family’s camp on Nelson Pond. Her work continues designing and making costumes for skaters and dancers, primarily through her website, customskatewear.com. Her daughter, Chelsey, is a jewelry designer living in Los Angeles, and daughter, Shona, is an audiologist living in Washington, D.C. Melinda would love to hear from her Hibbard friends and anyone else. Working at The Farm Table Restaurant at Kringle Candle in Bernardston, Mass., a hop and a skip from the NMH campus, is a third career for Carol Ball. It follows a stint in the Peace Corps and teaching ESL in the ’70s, and then almost 30 years in group insurance and employee benefits. She endeavors to stay “young and fit” by running in small local races with her sister, Shel Ball ’68. Carol wonders if anyone in our class wants to run in the annual Pie Race. She’s lobbying for a special category for people more than 40 years removed from school, who should get a pie just for running the race. Ever the multitalented artist, Bruce Burnside began his 27th season under the canvas Chautauqua tent on Lake Superior in Wisconsin; had book signings for his collection of poetry and short stories, The Artist’s Guest; debuted a new stage show called Stories for the Water; and had his original music performed by a combination of musicians from the Blue Canvas Orchestra and Eau Claire Chamber Orchestra. He also began a humorous, imaginative radio download series called “The Continuing Adventures of Bumpy and Squeamish, Protectors and Guardians of the Secret Pencil Stories,” and is producing a radio/DVD documentary on the nearby little town of Cornucopia, settled in the 1890s as a Russian fishing community. Debby Buhrman Topliff and her husband wrapped up their 12-month “gap” year in St. Andrews, Scotland. She highly recommends, if at all possible, that you try taking a break from the status quo to study, pursue a passion, experience a different culture, and make new friends. Sylvia Kuhner Baer still teaches college literature and performs the one-woman play she wrote, A Passion for Life—Emily Dickinson, all around the country. Meanwhile, she’s started several workshops and programs to teach poetry writing in schools and communities. She’s also continued her research and programs in children’s literature. Sylvia even appeared on the NPR program “American Icons” talking about Disney’s effect on our cultural landscape. And she continues to chase little white balls around golf courses and slightly larger yellow balls around tennis courts. Her new-found fun sport is paddle-boarding. After concentrating on family matters, lawyer turned underwater videographer Jay Garbose finally got back in the water, trying out some new gear after a year’s hiatus. He looks forward to shooting new videos in the near future. Jay is pleased to have re-established contact with classmates, including Les Petrovics, Marea “Beth” Gordett, and a group that gets together in the Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., area every spring. This year’s marathon bar meet
fall 2013 I 67